Baidu Campus in Beijing Photo: VCG

Chinese tech company Baidu is expected to launch a ChatGPT-style bot, named ERNIE, which will open for public use in March, Baidu told the Global Times on Tuesday, noting that ERNIE may start "beta testing earlier to keep up with Google and Microsoft's pace".

"ERNIE is doing the sprint before going finally online," the company said.

The announcement, which prompted Baidu's Hong Kong-listed shares to jump more than 15 percent on Tuesday morning, also makes it the first among other Chinese counterparts in joining a global race in the sector.

Baidu said that ChatGPT is a milestone and watershed in artificial intelligence (AI) development, which means that AI technology has reached a critical point, urging for an early development of the emerging technology. 

"We may start beta testing earlier to keep up with Google and Microsoft's pace," Baidu said.

Insiders told the Global Times that Baidu's work on the bot could have started from September last year, when CEO Robin Li said the development of AI has "directional changes at both the technical level and the commercial application level." 

Baidu has a grasp of all ChatGPT-related technology, with a full-stack layout in the four-layer AI architecture, including the underlying chips, deep learning framework, large models, and top-layer search applications, the company said.

ERNIE, meaning "Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration," is an AI-powered language model.

The Chinese search engine giant has been in the AI field for many yea s, the company said, adding that ERNIE possesses industrial-level knowledge, with deep semantic understanding and generation capabilities across modalities and languages.

Also on Monday, Alphabet Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said his company is opening a conversational AI service called Bard to test users for feedback, followed by a public release in the coming weeks, adding that Google plans to add AI features to its search engine that synthesize material for complex queries.

Microsoft has worked to add OpenAI's image-generation software to its Bing search engine, Reuters reported earlier.

Baidu and Google, with massive algorithm pairs, data, and the ability to process natural language processing, they may be "at better position" in doing this than the OpenAI team, Liu Dingding, a veteran industry analyst, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

"But Baidu will primarily focus on Chinese language, environment, and market, rather than a global one," Liu said 

ChatGPT is currently not available in China.

News of Baidu's foray into the AI arena has fired up Chinese AI-related stocks in recent days. Beyond Baidu, industry players told the Global Times a growing number of large and small companies are developing the technology, with some yeing for launches within this year.